Australia bears onslaught of huge cyclone

A devastating tropical cyclone has ripped through north-eastern Australia, injuring people and destroying homes with gusts of up to 290 kilometres (180 miles) per hour. And another cyclone - the Southern hemisphere's hurricane equivalent - is on its way.

The first cyclone, named Larry, reached maximum (Category 5) intensity at about the time of landfall. It hit the coast at the town of Innisfail, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Cairns, at 0700 Eastern Standard Time (AEST) on Monday. Larry is now weakening as it moves west over land and leaves its power source - evaporating ocean water - behind. By 2000 AEST it was about 400 km inland and had downgraded to a Category 2 storm.

It is not yet clear how many people have been injured but no serious injuries have been reported. Along the coast, residents have described houses blown away and trees uprooted. About half the houses in Innisfail have been damaged, according to emergency services. Millions of dollars worth of sugar cane and banana crops have also been destroyed.

A tent city will now be erected to house the homeless, and power workers will try to restore electricity to 50,000 homes in the north of the state. Innisfail resident Bruce Crozer spoke to ABC Radio as the cyclone approached: "It's a shocker. It's blowing a million miles an hour. I'm three kilometres west of town and I can't see much at all. The rain is coming horizontal and it's horrendous."

Hurricane Katrina

Hundreds of people were evacuated from low-lying regions before the storm hit, and mandatory evacuations took place in Cairns on Monday. Schools in the area were closed.

Another cyclone, called Wati, is currently about 2000 km (1250 miles) east of Queensland. This cyclone is intensifying, and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) expects it to hit Australia in a few days.

Larry's maximum wind speeds were similar to those of Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in August 2005. But communities affected by Larry were not below sea level, so they were not at the same risk of devastating flooding.

It will take a few days to fully assess the property damage caused by Larry, but it could turn out to be the most destructive cyclone ever to hit Queensland, says the BoM's Cyclone Warning Centre in Brisbane. Five Category 5 cyclones have been recorded in the past.

Recent research suggests that severe tropical cyclones, also called "super-cyclones", hit Australia's Great Barrier Reef coast every 200 to 300 years - 10 times more often than was previously thought (see 'Super-cyclone' threat to Great Barrier Reef raised).

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This image of Larry was captured on Sunday 19 March at 1730 AEST - it made landfall next morning (Image: Japan Meteorological Agency/Bureau of Meteorology)